Distinguished Alumni Award Recipient
Melinda Novak
Dr. Melinda Novak is professor of psychology and chair of the Department of Psychology at UMass Amherst. She is also the director of the UMass Primate Laboratory, a small primate research facility seeking to understand continuity and change in the behavior of monkeys across their life-span with a focus on cognitive processes, social interaction, and abnormal behavior or psychopathology. Students working with Novak gain invaluable experience in handling and managing captive primates, conducting behavioral and health assessments, and testing monkeys on complex cognitive tasks.
Novak received her bachelor’s degree in psychology/zoology from the University of Connecticut in 1967. She went on to earn a master’s degree in 1972 and then a doctorate in psychology in 1973 from the University of Wisconsin. Shortly after, she began her teaching career at UMass Amherst.
In addition to her teaching and research at UMass Amherst, Novak is head of the Behavioral Primatology Unit at the New England Primate Research Center at the Harvard Medical School. Through funding from the National Institutes of Health, she continues her work to discover the causes of and treatment for abnormal behavior and other abnormal conditions in primates.
Novak is a past president of the American Society of Primatologists, and has served on a number of advisory boards, journal editorial boards, and federal grant review panels. She regularly reviews primate facilities and provides advice and guidance on psychological well-being programs. She has written over 100 publications related to behavioral development in rodents and primates and has given numerous addresses and symposium presentations on the topic. Novak was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal for Distinguished Faculty Lecturer in 2007.